Week 8 - Site Location/User

If Brisbane CBD became a car free zone the streets would have to change to cater more for the pedestrian. All the streets in our allocated site would become walking streets accessible by bikeways or trams. I would like to focus on the young adult user of the city, at the moment the city does not have a lot of things do for young people to do besides shop and mull around in queen street. There are not many free public spaces for entertainment or just to sit, relax and eat lunch.

I propose to design a multi functional community building that is adaptable. The site location I have chosen is at the top of the Queen street mall on George st. I have chosen this location as it is quite a busy pedestrian traffic node as well as a place where many buses and taxis stop at the moment. When the cars are taken off the street I imagine it will remain quite busy as it is close to the city library and casino. Implementing a building for public use would break up the high traffic area and be a new landmark visible from many vantage points around the city. 

Week 8 - Project Development

Our future scenario chosen for the first assignment was What if energy was free?

As I am not very interested in this topic I have decided to take one of our smaller ideas and develop a new future scenario from it. We started to look at having different modes of transport for our future city as energy usage wouldnt be an issue, we came up with the idea of having small cars that are free and shared by the public within the city. I want to build on this topic of transport but instead of small cars that would use alot of energy and need roads to run on I want to propose that the city centre be a car free zone. By making this area a car free zone the introduction of better public transport would have to be considered. Whether this be the introduction of tram lines through the city or the possibilty of a 24hr undeground railway line. Improving and introducing new bikeways and green areas throughout the walking city would be part of this future vision. I want to start thinking how this scenario would impact on how the streets look, how the architecture would change now that each of the buildings will have a different presence on the pedestrian run streets.

 (Arch Daily, 2012)

Reference List:

Arch Daily. (2012). El Palmer Green Boulevard?Amann - Canovas-Maruri [Image]. Retrieved September 14, 2012, from http://ad009cdnb.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1338005026-desde-el-eje.jpg

Week 7 Reading - Function Follows Form

This reading is interesting as it flips the old saying "forms follows function" on its head. I agree that the form of a building does not come directly from its function, but I dont completely agree that the function of the building is completely dictated by its form either. I believe that the the form and function of a building are closely intertwined and neither one comes from the other.

As an architect we can only predict so far how a designed space is going to be used. In saying this the specific form of a building could allow for different functions to be performed by the users, but maybe not functions predicted by the architect.

An interesting idea would be to create a building form without adding furiture or items which can specifically determine a function for a space, but to leave it open and wait to see what function the users determine for the form that was created.

Week 7 Tutorial Reflection

 (Mansilla+Tuñón, 2011)

Today in the tutorial we were introduced to the new project. At this stage in project as always there was alot of confusion within the tutorial group. We spent the time discussing amongst ourselves and with the tutor trying to nut out what exactly it was we had to do. So far what I understand about the project is that its not particularly focused on creating a single architectural entity but rather a situation that is affected by the stage in which it is set and this stage does not neccesarily have to be based upon brisbane city but any urban situation. There was also alot of discussion about how the project was to be presented, posibble answers to this included using animation, drawing it up like a kind of storyboard and not really having to use conventional presentation techniques unless they are relevant to what you are trying to show. The task seems quite daunting at this stage as there is not alot of solid parameters and I have not worked on something of a similar nature before.

Reference List:

Mansilla,Tuñón. (2011). Symposium: Ljubljana Days of Oris [Image]. Retrieved September 8, 2012, from http://www.archdaily.com/134776/symposium-ljubljana-days-of-oris/mansillatunon/